Earth Alliance Warlock Class Destroyer
The Earth Alliance’s latest advanced warship is a by-product of the Shadow and Earth Civil Wars. It had become clear that the standard vessels available were not up to the task of conducting major planetary assaults and EarthForce thus decided it needed a new breed of star ship, one capable of extended space conflicts and combating even the might of the dangerous Whitestar cruisers. The Warlock was, without a doubt, the most devastating war vessel ever produced in Alliance history. It was designed to have an artificial gravity system using the techniques learned from their peers in the ISA, extremely powerful weaponry and the toughest armor possible. Following the conclusion of the Earth Civil War, the experimental new Warlock-class destroyers began their initial tests and shortly thereafter went into active service. First among these new warships was the EAS Titans, under the command of Captain Susan Ivanova. The Titans was soon followed by the Sorcerer, Necromancer, Merlin and Enchantress. By 2268 there were some 50 Warlock-class vessels in service, with more under construction. Technology was plundered from many advanced races to create the Warlock-class, but the most prominent was the use of Shadow bio-organic technology in design and production. The design was not finished in time for the Earth Civil War, though the Warlock did lend some of its advanced technological design to the bastardized Omega-X class destroyer that was briefly employed during this conflict. Later on, under the noses of the ISA – who would have made a very big stink over the project – the Nemesis Project (called Warlock-X by those who once worked under Clark) created a handful of fully equipped Shadow-technology Warlocks. The twin progenitors of this line, the EAS Nemesis (unsurprisingly) and the EAS Banshee. They are kept under tight supervision to keep their controversial and dangerous technologies in EA hands – where many foolishly believe it belongs. The Nemesis class is based on the same hull design as the Warlock, but uses Shadow technology throughout. Unlike the ‘hatchet job’ of integration used in the Omega-X, the Nemesis is a fully functional cyber-organic warship. With the fall of the Clark regime, the Nemesis project was nearly scrapped by EarthForce. It took nearly five years for work to begin again on the ships, and new hulls had to be obtained as the old hulls had been converted into basic Warlocks. The project’s name was changed from Warlock (or Warlock-X) to Nemesis, and research began again, out of sight of the Interstellar Alliance’s watchdogs. While using Shadow technology is not strictly forbidden by ISA law, they are aware of how disruptive it can be. The ship is a nightmare of pseudo-living segments working with advanced human technology, and is more than a match for nearly any other vessel flying in the galaxy. Using an experimental ‘hyperspace echo-location’ tracking system – or HEL-track for short – to locate their targets, there is not a ship that can hide from the Nemesis’ hull splitting firepower. Even the jamming suites of the Minbari are useless against HEL-track, and should it come to it, the Nemesis would likely decimate the advanced Minbari fleets, much as they did to Earth’s ships thirty-five years earlier. The Earth Alliance denies having ignored the ISA’s request to avoid Shadowtech. Currently, only a handful of Nemesis-class ships are in operation, all of which are stationed at secret research bases where they can be maintained by Shadow peons, who are needed to tend to the Nemesis’ more advanced systems. One of the strangest situations to ever arise during the test flight of one of the first few Nemesis-class vessels, the EAS Spectre simply disappeared just off of the edge of Vorlon space. It fell completely off registered beacons and ceased all communications as if it was placed on orders to run utterly silent. Seventy-two hours later, it re-appeared a few systems away floating adrift in a loose orbit over Batain II. Running completely on automated systems when towed back to spacedock, the Spectre was completely without its crew, cargo and life-support supplies were all but drained to toxic levels within the ship. It showed no signs of any battle damage or of sabotage or damage of any kind – making it a great mystery and a ghost story that pilots assigned to the Nemesis Project tell one another when floating through hyperspace. Historical Note One of the strangest situations to ever arise during the test flight of one of the first few Nemesis-class vessels, the EAS Spectre simply disappeared just off of the edge of Vorlon space. It fell completely off registered beacons and ceased all communications as if it was placed on orders to run utterly silent. Seventy-two hours later, it re-appeared a few systems away floating adrift in a loose orbit over Batain II. Running completely on automated systems when towed back to spacedock, the Spectre was completely without its crew, cargo and life-support supplies were all but drained to toxic levels within the ship. It showed no signs of any battles, or of sabotage or damage of any kind – making it a great mystery and a ghost story that pilots assigned to the Nemesis Project tell one another when floating through hyperspace. Warlock Advanced Destroyer ‘Warlock-X’ Nemesis Advanced Destroyer Source The Babylon 5 Project: Warlock class destroyer Babylon 5: Ships of the Galaxy (pages 23-25) thedemonapostle